Event Resources

International Women’s Day: support the strikes

Wednesday 08-03-2017 - 09:02

Today, women across the world will strike. In Ireland, they will strike for women’s access to basic reproductive healthcare. In the US, they will strike for the labour rights of women. In Australia, they will strike for equal pay.

Together, the strikes in over 30 countries will aim to combine struggles against male violence, opposition to the casualisation of labour and wage inequality. Together, they will aim to push for an international (and intersectional) feminist movement with an expanded agenda - one that is anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and anti-heterosexist

In Ireland, for example, Strike 4 Repeal has called for the total withdrawal of labour (where possible) to demand for the Irish government to call for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment now.

However, it is important to recognise that defending our reproductive rights is a global struggle across borders. From India, where unsafe abortions kill ten women every day to Poland, where abortions are only available under very restricted conditions.

The NUS Women’s Campaign will stand in solidarity with the International Women’s Strike, and more importantly, with women across the world who are fighting for the most basic human rights.

At a time when fascism is on the rise, it is crucial for women across the world to stand up and resist further attempts by their respective governments to dictate the lives of the many. With the resurgence of the pro-life lobby in both the UK and US, with the ten per cent rise in domestic abuse in the past year, with the #MuslimBan and the staggering increase in gendered Islamophobia - It is now, more important than ever before, to “re-politicise” International Women’s Day.

Let us not forget, that on this day in 1908 migrant women marched through the streets of Manhattan to demand better pay and shorter working hours. On this day in 1917, Russian women took to the streets in an uprising that would eventually overturn the Tsarist regime.

Thus, it is with great pleasure, that I announce the NUS Women’s Campaign will be hosting Cinzia Arruzza at the Trump Brexit and Beyond Summit: Building Bridges Not Walls event. Arruzza is an assistant professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York and one of the lead organisers of the International Women’s Strike.

Join us on Sunday 12 March to learn more about ‘How to Build an Intersectional Movement’ and to build a collective and powerful movement.

As it currently stands, migrant women are being detained by the state apparatus and deported in the hundreds. Reproductive rights across the UK and US are under threat. Attacks against visibly Muslim women, particularly black Muslims, are at an all-time high.

Our panel is an opportunity for people to learn about practising intersectionality and the urgent need for us to mobilise at a time of such political upheaval.

You can register for the event, by clicking here! Alternatively, for more information on the summit, checkout our Facebook events page.

In the age of Trump, Brexit (and beyond) we need a feminism of the 99% to take action.